Pébereau has resisted the stock market battles, crises and even big night bank. But a simple date in a calendar, and he is defeated. Thursday 1 December, the most influential banker in France or Europe, will no longer be president of BNP Paribas, the old lady he was winded in eighteen years the first French bank. At 69, the inspector of finance promotion Marcel Proust was found by time. No matter. A few days before his abdication, he remains the first line on the front of the euro. One day, debating on a television with Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. Another received at Downing Street by David Cameron, the British prime minister. There's a fire in the house and the euro Financial has an address book to make the government gives tirelessly envious of the voice. That of BNP Paribas. That of France.
Posts Tagged ‘life’
Sunday, November 6th, 2011
(From our special correspondent in Athens)
Ten days after a summit of the European Union has offered a new and generous aid package (130 billion of soft loans and additional deletion of 50% of its bank debt), Greece has still failed to respond positively to its European partners. The ongoing political chicanery in Athens are now exasperated the northern Europeans. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has just said out loud what they think almost all of his compatriots: "Greece should never have been back in the euro area! ".
Four days after returning from Brussels summit, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announced unexpectedly that he would submit to a referendum history of the Europe Agreement on October 27.In his speech before the vote, Prime Minister pledged to work towards forming a national unity government, which would then be able to obtain approval from the European level by a qualified majority of the Greek Parliament.
Saturday at midday, Papandreou has therefore gone to the President of the Hellenic Republic (with powers more symbolic than real, like the presidents German or Italian), asking him to convene the party leaders in for the formation of a grand coalition. But Antonis Samaras, the leader of opposition party New Democracy (center right) then stated publicly that he demanded the resignation prior Papandreou, in his eyes too discredited claim to form such a government of national unity.
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
● Restoring growth
● Reform the international monetary system
● Fighting against the volatility of agricultural commodities
● Regulate Financial Markets
● Financing for Development Assistance
● Reforming global governance
Boost growth
Life insurance falls into the red
Monday, October 24th, 2011The ax has fallen. In September, the French withdrew 11.5 billion euros in their contracts of life insurance in order to invest in alternative investments. With a collection of 9.7 billion euros, the "preferred placement of French" displays so a net outflow of 1.8 billion euros. "Financially, there is a stabilization of outstanding, grade Pierre de Villeneuve, president of the commission life of the French Federation of Insurance Companies (FFSA) and Chief Operating Officer of BNP Paribas' Cardif. The outflow is offset by the capitalization of assets. "
This net outflow nevertheless a very symbolic event for the world of insurance. This is the second time this has happened since the publication of a monthly indicator in 1997.In the panic of the fall of Lehman Brothers, the purchase of contracts had exceeded the collection in October and December 2008.
The new episode of outflow was expected, the movement of withdrawals flying for several months. Several factors explain this cold snap. "The environment encourages individuals to anxiety out of stock or bonds to promote short-term investments or stone," said Jean Berthon, president of the Federation of Independent human savers for retirement (Faider) . Hesitations about the tax life insurance at the beginning of the year have also left its mark.
Banks are active
In this context, investors do not have particularly appreciated the booklet A faxless payday advance. Despite its attractive net salary of 2.25%, in September it displays a modest collection of 1.13 billion euros.Investments flagship autumn are to be sought in bank books boosted short-term offer of 3.5% to 6%, for periods of three to twelve months. Banks, ordered to adapt very quickly to new regulatory requirements of Basel III, should not relax their efforts to build up a stock of customer deposits.
Insurers temper the consequences of withdrawal. Indeed, if an individual purchases a life insurance company invests in securities with face holding horizon is closer to the life of the contract, that is to say very often in bonds.The outflow thus results for insurance companies by sales of bonds, exposing companies in an environment of rising interest rates to a realization of unrealized losses.
"The life insurance companies have tools to deal with exceptional events: the capitalization reserve, the reserve for surplus and unrealized gains …" insists Pierre de Villeneuve. As for the outflow, or it should not affect investment returns, or the results of companies. This is a good opportunity to show the flexibility of life insurance to meet the needs of some investors. "
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Sales of textiles fell in September
Friday, October 21st, 2011The gray economy and softness unusual ambient temperatures may have caused consumers to be cautious in September. Including their clothing purchases. Accordingly: in France, sales of textile and clothing tumbled 10% from the same month last year.This is the French Institute of Fashion (IFM) that will sound the alarm in his last letter of conditions.
This drop in sales spares no distributor:
-Department stores as well accuse a sales decline of 7% in value in September, compared to the same period in 2010,
-Chains saw sales backward 10%
-The decline in sales is 12% for independent multi-brand and 14% for Monoprix.
Monoprix, it was confirmed that the "weather is unfavorable, has had an impact on sales", but also justifies the bad news by the fact that the month of September 2010, compared, was a great month, "sales were then actually up 7%, "says the distributor is.The postponement of a commercial called "The nine days', held in September last year but this year is set astride September and October, may have also contributed to falling sales, recognizes we also Monoprix.
The worst September for a long time …
As for independent multi-brand, the drop in sales was certainly 12% in September, but the segment of the lingerie was displayed, according to the IFM, the best resistance (+ 0.3% in value in September).
All distributors alike, sales began to level off in the summer, the balances have been very disappointing for retailers.During the period January-August 2011, they had already declined by 1.7% in value over the same period last year.
The downward trend has clearly intensified in September, which is the worst for the industry for a long time: according to the IFM, clothing sales in France had indeed increased 2% in 2010, which was a good year, after falling 8% in 2009. But they climbed 1.2% in 2008 and even 8.3% in 2007.
The outlook for the month of October are not provided completely obscured: true, according to Franck Delpal, an economist at the IFM, a slight improvement in weather clothing is not excluded in October, with relapse of temperatures .Already, the last weekend of September would, he said, was marked by an upturn in sales, including warm clothing.
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The Paris Bourse started the session sharply down
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011The mood is gloomy Tuesday in the Paris Bourse. The debt crisis and fears of a default still saddled Greek markets. The CAC plunged 2.98% in the early morning at 2 839.50 points after having been closed on Monday, down 1.85% to 2926.83 euros. Elsewhere in Europe, London was down 1.40% to 5,004.51 points and Frankfurt from 1.72% to 5376.60 points. Also down sharply, Wall Street Monday reached its lowest level since September 2010.
Monday evening, the finance ministers of the Eurogroup announced after their meeting that they see "in October," the decision on the next tranche of 8 billion euros to Greece. Europe is planning to review the private sector in the second aid plan and is considering increasing the relief fund for indebted countries (EFSF).Finance Ministers have also agreed on the granting of collateral in exchange for loans to Greece.
Athens, meanwhile, announced new measures after Sunday warned that the country would not meet its deficit targets required by its creditors.
Oil down
Despite these announcements, this is no time to calm the markets on Tuesday morning. In Asia, the Nikkei yield 1.31% to 8433.27 points and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong 1.59% to 16,554 points. Fears weigh on the euro area also on the European currency has reached Monday, a low of ten years against the Japanese currency at 100.96, yen. This morning the euro is worth 101.21 yen and 1.3218 dollar.
Oil markets, concerns about the global economy weigh on prices: a barrel of "light sweet crude" for delivery in November lost $ 1.11, to 76.50 dollars in early electronic trading.A barrel of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery gave up 92 cents to 100.79 dollars.
In terms of macroeconomic indicators, investors will pay attention to the publication of industrial producer prices in the euro zone at least August. Overseas, industrial orders in the U.S. for August are expected in 16 hours. At the same time, the president of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, scheduled to speak before a congressional committee on "economic forecasts".
Dexia has announced the sale of its flagship
The entire banking sector will be followed on Tuesday. The board of directors of Dexia (-27.7% to 0.94 euros) announced last night to have initiated a process to solve the structural problems of the group but did not mention track in particular.The Franco-Belgian bank should speed up the sale of its jewels and isolation of its non-performing assets in a "bad bank". His last note was placed on negative watch by Moody's.
The sugar group Cristal Union will acquire in a friendly group Vermandoise for nearly a billion euros to create the number five European sugar industry, which will be number two in France behind Tereos. Vermandoise group includes two companies listed on NYSE-Euronext Paris, the Society of Sugar Vermandoise (SVS) and the Sugar Company of the Old Pithiviers (SSPLV). The listing of the two securities is suspended.
GDF Suez (-0.20% to 22.40 euros) has completed the sale of the Rete Gas G6 consortium of infrastructure funds F2i, AXA Private Equity and Enel Distribution.The sale values the distribution assets at an enterprise value of 772 million euros, to 103% of the regulated asset base in 2010, 9.3 times Ebitda and 17.5 times net income. This was announced in June.
Bonduelle (-0.80% to 64.34 euros) reported a sharp drop in its annual net profit by 48% to 30.4 million but expects a rebound in profitability for the year 2011-2012. The food group is also in talks to buy the vegetables Aucy in Russia.
Naturex (-0.76% to 49.42 euros), a specialist in natural ingredients of plant origin, will launch a capital increase of € 49.3 million to fund acquisitions and increase its free float stock.
The long wandering unemployed California
Monday, September 26th, 2011For three years she is unemployed, Sheila Magsby short job center job center in the wheel of his battered car in the hope of becoming thinner, to find a job. The point where it is, after thirty-six months of fruitless searches and applications without response, the forties would be satisfied with a minimum wage, although it has twenty years experience as secretary to the prosecutor in Los Angeles. Over the past year, Sheila no longer receives any unemployment benefits. It is therefore no income. "Luckily I live with my father. How else am I get out? "She asks.
Sheila lives in Los Angeles, but that it is today came Torrance consult the job offers. "I might have better luck here," she sighed half-heartedly.At about twenty miles west of downtown, Torrance is home to the headquarters of U.S. automakers Toyota and Honda, companies that only hire certainly not now, but around which created an economy of small merchants , restaurants, etc..
Degreasing the chain
Eighth global economy, California stands today especially the second worst unemployment rate in the country (12.1%) after the Nevada (13.4%). Only the San Francisco area, the heart of high-tech industries and the Internet is more or less spared thanks to companies like Twitter and Facebook continue to recruit qualified personnel. The rest of the state bogged down. Building on education, the downsizing continues as roads and school performance deteriorated.In the center, in the San Joaquin Valley, the unemployment rate reached 40% in some towns. To the south, near the Mexican border, it rises to 26% in the Greater El Centro.
Alarmed by stagnant growth, stock market rout and a nagging housing crisis, employers in California have eliminated 8,400 jobs in August (after having created 98,500 since the beginning of the year). 3600 of them were eliminated in the public sector. The teacher Cindy Cheritan is one of the many victims of these cuts. She found herself obliged to accept a job as a nurse throughout the summer, paid $ 50 per day, because the City of Downey, where she works, can no longer afford to offer the remedial courses that summer allow teachers to make ends meet during their two months of unpaid leave."I've mostly replacements, says Cindy, because it is currently impossible to get tenure."
Three hundred applicants for every job
Cindy's case is emblematic. She returned several times the path to college for a career change. Having obtained a real estate license at the beginning of the real estate crisis of 1997, she was forced to abandon this activity almost immediately. "At the time, there was a shortage of teachers. So I opted for this profession. "Struck by bad luck, she became a teacher at age 45, after five years of study, just when education authorities began to fire teachers. Cindy is now for the group 16.3% of Californians living below the poverty line.At 50, she returned also live with her parents.
"We see a lot of engineers, says Christina Haggins, the job center of Redondo Beach as the aerospace industry, a strong presence here, has eliminated thousands of jobs. Recently we even had a judge have been unemployed for several months. We tried to help him, but he still has not found anything. "
According to the California Labor Department, about 300 candidates apply for each job. As was recently the case in a holistic care center for pets. "They were looking for a receptionist. We were 250 to introduce ourselves, "said Julie, unemployed for two years.
California and have any interest in adopting the employment plan recently presented by Barack Obama.The $ 3.9 billion allocated to infrastructure renewal of the state could create 51,500 jobs, 37,000 teachers could find the way to school. Finally, about 710,000 SMEs would receive tax cuts and social security. "We absolutely must get out of the economic hole we have fallen," calls the director of the Institute for Research and Development of the use of UCLA, Chris Tilly. "People need to get back on their spending and businesses to hire."
Mutual: the debate over the tax goes up a tone
Monday, September 26th, 2011The tax increase mutual health has not finished making waves. The plan of the government plans to increase from 3.5% to 7% tax on contracts and supportive health officials said, 95% of the market for complementary health, has been much debated since it was finally adopted by parliament on 8 September.
Last response date, two UMP announced Friday their intention to table an amendment to Bill Financing Social Security (PLFSS) reserves to tax "excessive" for certain health insurance schemes. Their goal: to prevent a sharp rise in contract prices by encouraging individuals to use their mutual financial reserves rather than pass on the increase in the tax on membership fees.
Sébastien Huyghe, MP North, and Valérie Rosso-Debord, Meurthe-et-Moselle, advocated to establish "what could amount to a wealth tax" on the margins of solvency of each other located far beyond the legal limit. "The law requires unions to hold minimum reserves called legal reserves or solvency margins, which now account for 17% of the amount of annual dues. When this level is set aside, it is said that the solvency of the mutual is 100%, "they recall. In their amendments, MEPs are the players that has a line "located beyond 300%", a rate considered sufficient to ensure their development or deal with contingencies.
According Valérie Rosso-Debord, the reserves of each other is "five to six times beyond the level required."These organizations "a way of managing heritage, which is not in the interest of their contributors," lamented the member quoted by Reuters. For his part, Labour Minister, Xavier Bertrand, argued that no insurance company or mutual was in financial difficulties and were "not required to fully pass this increase" on their customers .
"No secret reserves"
These arguments will probably jump Caniard Etienne, the president of the National Federation of French Mutual, which represents 600 health insurance schemes. He said the tax increases will be reflected automatically on membership fees, mutuals have already seen their margins decline in recent years. In this context, it amounts to 3.5% increase "mechanical" contribution for 2012. "It is no secret reserves" into the coffers of these organizations, he assures.A view shared by Gerard Andreck, Chairman of mutual insurance companies (Gema), a trade association. "Maybe there are a number of which are in mutual capacity to absorb this increase, but not the general market," he said after the vote by the parliament of the text .
Yet, according to Le Parisien, the market would not be so tense. Based on the balance sheets and income sector, the paper shows that mutual health organizations are seated on a "gold mine hidden" gigantic. MGEN (Mutual of Education) would be the best endowed. In 2009, its reserves "excessive" reached 1 billion euros, representing a solvency margin of 667%, well above the standards. With reserves of 262 million euros, Malakoff Médéric benefit from a solvency margin of 779%.These financial reserves "would easily (these mutual, Ed) to support the additional tax under the government without making their customers suffer," the paper concludes.
According to a study released Wednesday by UFC-Que Choisir, the French spent 25.4 billion euros in additional contributions to health in 2010, an increase of 16.6% in five years, two times higher than the increase income. And raising taxes will bring to the state 100 million euros in 2011 and $ 1.1 billion in 2012, according to government calculations.
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The Fed is embarking on a "Twist"
Friday, September 23rd, 2011The Fed has launched "Operation Twist" on Wednesday. Following a two-day extraordinary meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee (FOMC), the U.S. central bank announced its intention to sell by the end of June 2012 for $ 400 billion of treasury bills maturity of three years or less, to buy an equivalent amount of maturity from six to 30 years.
This mechanism, which takes its name from the famous dance that was all the rage in the 1960s, had just been used for the last time in 1961. Its objective is to reduce interest rates in the long run to give a boost to business investment and the demand for housing loans, which use these rates as reference.
The Fed, however, chose not to touch interest rates that determine the short-term rates. They remain between 0% and 0.25%.And they will remain at historically low levels until mid-2013, said a statement.
Market disappointment
In addition to this twist, and in order to support the mortgage market, the Fed will also buy real estate securities without increasing the size of its portfolio. For this, it will continue to reinvest the securities-backed real estate it owns as they fall due. But the FOMC said, instead of buying Treasury bonds as it did previously, she will buy securities backed by mortgage-agency mortgage refinancing para as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
This double operation shows that the Federal Reserve, the economy remains very depressed."The latest economic indicators suggest a continued weak conditions in the labor market and unemployment remains high, the Fed said. There are significant downside risks weighing on economic prospects, including strains in global financial markets. " These findings are similar to those of the IMF, which announced Tuesday it had seen very sharp fall in its growth forecast for the U.S., in theory at a level insufficient to expect a decline in the unemployment rate, which remains very high, to 9.1%.
On Wall Street, where the launch of Operation Twist was widely anticipated, the operators retain the discretion not optimistic the U.S. economy. Shortly after the news release of the Fed, the Dow Jones, which evolved in equilibrium has shifted into the red.It closed down sharply from 2.49% to 11,124.84 points.
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Wall Street should remain on guard
Thursday, August 18th, 2011The session promises to be volatile on Wall Street on Wednesday, a day after closing in the red. In just over two hours of opening, the futures contract on the Dow is at equilibrium (0.02% at 11,389 points), as did the S & P 500 (0.03% to 1192 points). One on the Nasdaq was down 0.20% to 2195 points.
The markets seem to be torn between the desire to focus on quarterly results released last night or expected, and the wrong signals sent by the European and Asian markets. They are disappointed with the proposals of President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two leaders, who gathered to discuss the governance of the euro area, have not provided a response to the concerns of investors about the debt crisis in the euro area.Of course, a battery of measures was announced: economic government of the euro area, "golden rule" budget, tax on financial transactions, fiscal convergence. But Germany and France have ruled out a strengthening of the European emergency fund (EFSF) and the creation of Eurobonds, measures eagerly awaited by the markets.
"The concerns of investors are unlikely to dissipate anytime soon and could increase the pressure against the European leaders' strategists warn of Crédit Agricole CIB. "We are concerned that investors not only in the short term this framework must also be approved by all other countries and which offers no short-term response to the problems that worry the markets," added the manager of Barclays scholarship.
Oil up
In this context, operators will try to focus on indicators of the day.Before the opening, the Labor Department will release the index of producer prices. Weekly oil inventories will follow. Investors expect a decline in reserves, which pushed the futures contract on a barrel of "light sweet crude" for delivery in September rose 1.19% to 87.68 dollars.
Note the side of the currency, the attempt to rebound in the euro against the dollar. After being battered in the Asian trade, the single European currency recovers. Around 11:30 in Paris, the euro bought 1.4450 dollars against 1.4406 dollars late Tuesday.
The values of the day
News companies are also responsible for:
The Dell IT group has published Tuesday profit up 63% in the second quarter to $ 890 million, or earnings per share of 54 cents higher than expected. But the group has revised its annual sales targets downward.
Analog Devices reported last night for its third fiscal quarter, net earnings rose to 219.9 million dollars. But the group has disappointed analysts by saying that he expected an exaggerated caution of customers in a context of growing global economic uncertainty.
Abercrombie must report before the market opens its second quarter results. Ls forecasts indicate a profit of 29 cents per share and a turnover of 916.8 million dollars.
Deere also has pre-market release the results of its third fiscal quarter. The benefit should be 1.66% per share, according to economists.
Staples will announce its second quarter results, as Hot Topic, Limited Brands and Petsmart.
The banking sector battered yesterday after the European project for the taxation of financial transactions, will also be monitored.